Kansas Thespian Playworks
Original One-Act Play Competition ---SCRIPTS DUE NOVEMBER 1
What is Kansas Thespian Playworks?
Kansas Thespian Playworks is a playwriting program and script development workshop for high school writers. Up to three plays may be chosen to participate in play development workshops and script-in-hand readings at the Kansas Thespian Festival. The playwright and actors will collaborate with a theatre educator. The emphasis will be on bringing the play to life on stage with minimal production elements and on strengthening the script through rewrites. The student playwrights will be part of the production team, as they observe the readings, consult with the theatre educator, receive and provide feedback, and work on revisions. The process will culminate in readings of the scripts, or portions of them, before an audience, followed by an audience talkback.
Students are also encouraged to submit their work to the International Thespian Festival Playworks program.
Requirements
What is Kansas Thespian Playworks?
Kansas Thespian Playworks is a playwriting program and script development workshop for high school writers. Up to three plays may be chosen to participate in play development workshops and script-in-hand readings at the Kansas Thespian Festival. The playwright and actors will collaborate with a theatre educator. The emphasis will be on bringing the play to life on stage with minimal production elements and on strengthening the script through rewrites. The student playwrights will be part of the production team, as they observe the readings, consult with the theatre educator, receive and provide feedback, and work on revisions. The process will culminate in readings of the scripts, or portions of them, before an audience, followed by an audience talkback.
Students are also encouraged to submit their work to the International Thespian Festival Playworks program.
Requirements
- Scripts must be submitted by November 1st.
- The playwright’s name and school should NOT be on the script.
- Participants must be active members of the Thespian Society and enrolled in high school during the current school year.
- All finalists must be available to attend the Kansas Thespian Conference.
- The play can be about any subject.
- The play must be the original work of a single individual.
- No collaborative works or adaptations from other media will be considered.
- Plays cannot include copyrighted music, song lyrics, or poetry by someone other than the submitting playwright.
- Musicals cannot be considered.
- Plays should have a running time of about thirty minutes or less (approximately thirty typed pages).
- Each script is to be typed in an easy-to-read font.
- There is no entry fee for this event, but school must register the number of students participating in this event in Cvent.
- Playwrights whose scripts are selected to be workshopped at the Kansas Thespian Festival will be notified by the second week of December.
Advice
- Select the most entertaining, unique, and complete ideas for your script.
- Consider the limitations of Kansas Thespian Playworks at our festival:
- There is no tech.
- No full costumes or makeup.
- Often performed in a meeting-type room with audience on same level as performers.
- Actors get very limited number of rehearsals and run throughs.
- Avoid picking a script that requires something that won’t be available (special effects; elaborate costumes; etc).